Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is on the short list of candidates to take over the University of Pittsburgh's football program, a league source said Sunday.
Lewis was emotional following Sunday's 13-7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
"I can't answer where things are for me," Lewis said after the game. Responding to questions about his future with the team, Lewis said, "Officially, today I'm unemployed," ending with a laugh.
The Bengals' Twitter page followed Lewis' remarks with a post that read: "We need to talk and i need to sleep on it."
Lewis' contract with the Bengals expires after this season and might not be renewed. Cincinnati managed just four wins through 16 weeks and earlier this season tied a franchise record with 10 consecutive losses.
In eight seasons under Lewis the Bengals recorded a 60-67-1 record, posted just two winning seasons and lost in both of their playoff appearances.
Pittsburgh's vacancy appeared when the school fired head coach Mike Haywood on Saturday, saying he couldn't continue in the job he held for just 2½ weeks because of his arrest on a domestic-violence charge.
Haywood was released Saturday from St. Joseph County Jail in Indiana on $1,000 cash bond, said an officer at the jail who declined to give her name, after the charge was upgraded from a misdemeanor to felony domestic battery in the presence of a minor.
Within hours of Haywood's afternoon release, Pittsburgh put out a statement from Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, saying the coach had been dismissed, "effective immediately," and the school was reopening its search.
Haywood was arrested about 3 p.m. Friday after a custody issue developed with a woman with whom the coach has a child, police said. The unidentified woman told police that Haywood grabbed her by the arm and neck and pushed her as she tried to leave the home that the coach owns in South Bend, Ind., where he once was a Notre Dame assistant.
Assistant St. Joseph County Police Chief Bill Redman said the woman had marks on her neck, arms and back.
Haywood's hiring by athletic director Steve Pederson was greeted unenthusiastically by fans, boosters, alumni and students who questioned why a school with annual Top 25 aspirations hired him away from mid-major Miami of Ohio. Dave Wannstedt, forced to resign last month following a disappointing 7-5 season, coached the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins before his 2004 hiring at Pittsburgh.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
